what are the different accusations and complaints for rape and sexual assault targeting the actor?

A fifth complaint was filed Friday against the French cinema star by a 53-year-old decorator, for facts dating back to 2021, on the filming of the film “Les Volets vertes”.

The fall of “last sacred monster of French cinema” continues. A new complaint targeting Gérard Depardieu, that of a decorator, has been transmitted to the Paris prosecutor’s office, lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt announced to AFP on Sunday February 25, confirming information from Mediapart. This is the fifth woman to turn to justice since 2018.

For almost a year, the testimonies and complaints against the actor, also already indicted since December 2020 for “rape” and “sexual assault” accumulate. So much so that he chose to put his career on pause at the end of 2023, not without having refuted the accusations against him and denounced a “lynching”. However, he did not comment on the last two complaints filed against him in recent weeks. Franceinfo takes stock of the “Depardieu affair”.

A first complaint for rape and assault in 2018

The actress Charlotte Arnould was the first to go to the gendarmerie at the end of August 2018. She declared having been raped twice by Gérard Depardieu at the latter’s Parisian home, when she was 22 years old. Initially, she chose to preserve her anonymity. When her complaint was dismissed in June 2019, the young woman filed a civil suit and the investigation resumed.

The investigations led to the indictment of the actor on December 16, 2020 for “rape” And “sexual assault”. The identity of the complainant is at this stage still unknown to the public. But a year later, Charlotte Arnould, shocked to see that “nothing is happening” and that the actor continues his career, speaks on his X account (formerly Twitter). She declares to be “Depardieu’s victim” and no longer be able to remain silent. The latter denies the facts in an open letter. The case is still ongoing.

Fifteen other women accuse the actor of sexist and sexual violence

In a survey published in April 2023, Mediapart reports the testimony of 13 women who claim “having suffered inappropriate sexual gestures or comments from the famous actor, of varying severity, on the set of eleven films or series released between 2004 and 2022 or in external locations”, as well as the account of certain witnesses. The actor “formally denies all accusations likely to come under criminal law”then informed Mediapart of the Temime law firm, responsible for defending him.

None of the women cited filed a complaint, but three of them brought their testimony to court, according to the article. A few days later, Charlotte Arnould spoke for the first time in the press. “Among those who spoke to Mediapart, there are some for whom the facts are not prescribed. I hope that some will be ready to file a complaint”she confides to the magazine She.

In July, two other women testified at the microphone of France Inter, wishing to break the silence. They nevertheless decide not to turn to justice and to maintain their anonymity.

Possible acts of sexual harassment published in “Additional investigation”

This time, it is no longer words, but images which plunge the actor into turmoil. Cyrano de Bergerac : the program “Complément d’investigation”, broadcast on December 7 on France 2, shows Gérard Depardieu making numerous inappropriate and degrading remarks towards women. While visiting a stud farm in North Korea, he declared in front of a camera: “Women love to ride horses, their clits rub against the pommel of the saddle (…) They’re big sluts”. As a rider aged around ten passes by, he adds: “If [le cheval] gallops, she cums.”

The Paris public prosecutor’s office also explained to franceinfo at the end of January that a lawyer wrote to it in reaction to this issue of “Supplementary investigation” for “denounce the acts committed by Gérard Depardieu to the detriment of his guide in Korea in 2018, likely to be qualified as sexual harassment”. The prosecution is therefore in the process of analyzing “this denunciation” to see if the facts are actually characterized.

A second complaint for sexual assault dismissed

The actress Hélène Darras files a complaint in September 2023 against Gérard Depardieu for “sexual assault”. In the “Additional investigation” devoted to the actor, the complainant accuses the star of having “pelotte” when she was 26 and acted as an extra in the film Discodirected in 2007 by Fabien Onteniente.

The complaint was dismissed on December 29 “due to the statute of limitations of the facts”. “After being heard as a witness as part of the investigation procedure still in progress, initiated by Charlotte Arnould’s complaint, Hélène Darras wished to file a complaint as part of a separate procedure”underlines the Paris prosecutor’s office.

A third complaint for rape and sexual assault

Journalist and writer Ruth Baza, 51, reported to the Spanish police on December 19 a rape committed in 1995 by the actor. She claims that the events took place in Paris, when she was 23 years old. From a legal point of view, the probability of this complaint being successful is minimal, because the facts are prescribed in France. The complainant explains, however, that she decided to file a complaint in the hope that this could “help other people” to do the same.

“My client was never summoned to explain these accusations, nor worried”said Gérard Depardieu’s lawyer, Christian Saint-Palais, saying he did not know “absolutely nothing about a possible procedure in Spain”.

A fourth complaint for sexual assault

A few weeks later, another woman filed a complaint against the actor for sexual assault in March 2014 during the filming of the film The Magician and the Siamese, by Jean-Pierre Mocky, near Angers (Maine-et-Loire). Asked by The Western Mailthis filming assistant, who wishes to remain anonymous, denounces in particular “his hands all over [s]we body” and the “indecent words” by Gérard Depardieu on set. She was 24 years old at the time of the events. A preliminary investigation into “sexual assault on a vulnerable person by a person abusing the authority of their position” was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office.

“We learn of the existence of this complaint through the press. If the courts are seized, I choose, as a lawyer, not to speak publicly about this complaint, except that Gérard Depardieu firmly contests the accusations against him”reacted lawyer Christian Saint-Palais to AFP.

A fifth complaint for sexual assault

Last person to go to the police station, Friday February 23: Amélie, 53 years old, set designer on the set of the film Green Shutters, directed by Jean Becker in 2021. According to his lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, the facts denounced are therefore not prescribed. According to his account with Mediapart, Gérard Depardieu made many serious comments during filming, “caught brutally”he “kneaded the waist, the stomach, going up to her breasts”before being interrupted by his bodyguards. Gérard Depardieu has not yet commented on this new complaint.

According to the investigative media, another woman accuses the actor of having touched her twice “chest and buttocks” on August 31, 2021, on the same shoot. This woman, aged 33, was third assistant director. For the moment, she has not filed a complaint.